A.B. (Trueblood) v. Washington State Department of Social and Health Services

This court case is active

This case involves a constitutional challenge to the length of time individuals with mental disabilities spend in jail awaiting court-ordered competency evaluation and restoration services. Washington state law charges the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (“DSHS”) with overseeing competency evaluation and restoration services for adult individuals charged with crimes under state law, and state law sets a target deadline of seven days for DSHS to complete competency evaluation and restoration services for individuals in jails. DSHS consistently fails to meet its target deadlines, and individuals languish in county and city jails for weeks and months without appropriate mental health treatment. The ACLU of Washington, along with Disability Rights Washington, the Public Defender Association, and Carney Gillespie & Isitt, represent a class of individuals in a federal lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief based on a claim that DSHS’s failure to provide timely competency evaluation and restoration services violates Plaintiffs’ and class members’ due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.